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Helen Bradley - "My 10th Birthday"

Stock Code:2255 - SOLD

Description:A wonderful winter's twilight scene of children playing on a frozen canal set in Edwardian times as painted from the childhood memories of one of England's most famous yet unlikely 20th century artists - Helen Bradley.

Further Information: Born in Lees near Oldham in 1900, Helen only began to paint her distinctive scenes of an Edwardian girlhood at the age of 65. At first she simply wanted to show her grandchildren how different a place the world used to be when she was a child. From 1965 until her death in 1979, Helen achieved international notoriety with her first exhibits at the Saddleworth Art Society in 1965, followed by a London exhibition in 1966, and a sell out exhibition at the appropriately named Carter Gallery in Los Angeles in 1968.

The inscription on the back reads: On the morning of my tenth birthday, the postman came with a big box for me, "Whatever can it be? It's come from Holland" I was in such a hurry to open it, I said "Let us cut the string," but "No" said my Mother, "We never cut string, I'll help you to undo it." Inside was a real Dutch costume, including a pair of wooden clogs. The skirt, the pretty white apron and the velvet bodice fit me perfectly. In the letter from my dear Aunt Anne had included in the parcel, she wished I was with her, staying in a lovely old farmhouse and what fun we would have skating on the frozen canal, and when we became very good, we would skate all the way to Haarlem* which was a Beautiful Place. We will take Woof with us - the big black farm dog, and there he is watching me trying to skate, and, there's George with the little girls from the farm, and the year was 1910. (* Haarlem a city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is the capital of the province of North Holland.)

Condition:Excellent. The painting has been lightly cleaned and reframed in a late 20th century style frame.